Tennessee offensive coordinator and tight ends coach Alex Golesh is reportedly leaving Knoxville after two years after accepting the head coaching position at the University of South Florida.
The news comes out late Saturday night via Action Network’s Brent McMurphy.
As the offensive coordinator of the Volunteer’s high-powered unit this year, Golesh helped lead Tennessee to the nation’s top offensive ranking with 538.1 yards per game and 6,457 total yards on some of the SEC’s top defenses. Tennessee also led the nation in scoring offense with 47.3 points per game. South Florida, meanwhile, finished the season at No. 71 in scoring offense.
Tennessee offensive coordinator Alex Golesh has accepted an offer to be South Florida’s coach, sources told @ActionNetworkHQ. With the 38-year old Golesh, Tennessee led nation in total & scoring offense this season
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) December 4, 2022
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Alex Golesh first arrived in Knoxville during the start of the Josh Heupel era. Golesh and Heupel spent one year together on the UCF staff before arriving in Knoxville in early 2021.
During his first year as Tennessee’s offensive coordinator, Golesh turned the program around from No. 102 offensively in 2020 to No. 7 in 2021. Golesh then turned that into the nation’s No. 1 offense during the 2022 season.
The year-to-year numbers are truly astounding when considering the caliber of teams that Tennessee went up against in that short two-year stretch. Golesh and Heupel both embraced and preached the up-tempo mentality and worked hand-in-hand to get Tennessee’s offense up to speed.
Golesh first entered the coaching world as a student assistant at Ohio State in 2004 before eventually moving his way up to places such as Toledo, Illinois, Iowa State, and Central Florida prior to his two-year tenure at Tennessee.
According to UT Sports, Golesh also has five NFL Draft picks under his player tree including two from Tennessee: WR Velus Jones Jr., OL Cade Mays, TE Charlie Kolar, WR Jacob Harris, and WR Tre Nixon.
South Florida previously fired head coach Jeff Scott in early November after a 4-26 record over three seasons. Special teams coordinator Daniel Da Prato served as the interim head coach for the remainder of the season.
